It’s March 12th -- Do You Know Where Your Credit Card Is?

Gentlemen (and ladies), start your engines! iPad preorders for the United States begin today.

TUAW is reporting that “The Apple Store is currently down in the U.S., the U.K. and the rest of the world.” Unless you’ve been living in a cave somewhere in the region between Afghanistan and Pakistan with your neighbor Osama, you probably know that iPad preorder sales begin this morning. But did you know the exact time? We didn’t think so.

iPad preorders at apple.com begin at 8:30 am EST (that’s a bleary-eyed 5:30 am for our West Coast MacLife staff & readers!)

Before you start palming your credit card, remember that come April 3rd, only the Wi-Fi model will be available. We presume that any preorders from today through April 2nd will be scheduled to arrive via FedEx on April 3rd, as is customary for Apple product launches.

However, if you have your heart set on a 3G-enabled iPad, you’ll have to wait until an unspecified date in late April -- exactly when, Apple ain’t saying.

There were also some new, last-minute rumors on Thursday that we might see refreshed MacBook Pros and Mac Pros today, so keep an eye out for those as well when The Apple Store springs back to life. Or just stay tuned to this channel and we’ll let you know. That’s just how we roll.

Now where did we put that corporate credit card, anyway…?

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